Clearly, that would fix everything.
I woke up when I heard the key in the lock. My sister. I reached for my laptop and grabbed the rest of my stuff—not even zipping closed my bag—and raced toward the door. Rain wasn’t kidding. She would call the police if I wasn’t out of there before she stepped inside. My plan was to run out, even if that meant running right past her. But I ran too fast, and instead of squeezing past Rain on my way out, there was a man there. Large, imposing.
“Whoa!” he said.
He grabbed my shoulders, trying to avoid a collision. This guy was dirty and smelly, in fisherman gear, a garbage bag in his hand.
I flinched on his impact—on the feel of his hands on me—and my things went flying all around him, my laptop hitting the floor with a crack.
I bent down and started picking everything up.
He looked down at me, like he was trying not to laugh. “Where are you going in such a hurry?”
I looked up at him. “Don’t you knock?” I said.
“Is that protocol where you’re from?” he said. “If I’m the one with a key?”
He got down on the ground and started helping me corral my things—his hands on my folded underwear, his hands on my lipstick.
“Hope you didn’t have anything too valuable in here,” he said.
“You know, just everything I own,” I said.
He picked up my computer, a crack running down the front. “Owned may be more accurate,” he said.
I looked at him, his water bib undone, his suspenders by his waist. He was so dirty that you could almost miss that he was also pretty good-looking, in a burly kind of way. All muscles, with these clear blue eyes, smile glowing.
“So you did show up,” he said. “I thought you would.”
“Congratulations.”
“Thanks,” he said. “I believe someone owes me a hundred bucks.”
“You would have to be Thomas?”
“I don’t know that I would have to be,” he said.
I wasn’t in the mood for this guy, who was so obviously charmed by himself. I didn’t want to pretend I was interested in having anything like a relationship with my sister’s boyfriend, let alone with my sister herself.
He stood up, and I followed suit, my clothes stuffed back in my bag. He pointed toward the bedroom. “I’m just here grabbing a few things,” he said.
“Well, Rain is at work—”
“I know where Rain is.”
“So does she know that you’re here grabbing a few things?”
I couldn’t read his look. “You’re asking a lot of questions, considering I’m the one with the key,” he said.
“It was one question, actually. And you know what? I don’t care, I’m leaving.”
“Are you going through Sag on your way out of here?” he said.
“No, why?”
He smiled, dirty and mean. “No reason. There’s just a little billboard. For all the new Food Network shows.”
I closed my eyes, taking a breath in. “Great, so everyone is going to recognize me.”
“Well, you’re more like the corner of the billboard,” he said. “And, no offense, you look a lot better in the billboard version of yourself than you do in person, so . . .”
“Thank you.”
“I’m just saying, I’d relax about that. Not sure how many people around here care about someone stealing a few recipes.”
“So why’d you tell me about it?”
Thomas shrugged. “Thought you’d like to drive by it on the way out of town.”
I drilled him with a look, but then I heard a key in the lock.
My sister opened the door. Sammy was sound asleep in her arms. She looked back and forth between us.
“I don’t fucking believe this,” she said, straining to keep her voice low.
Thomas raised his hands in surrender. “It was my fault,” he said. “I was asking a ton of questions.”
“And whose fault are you?” she said.
She stormed past us and put Sammy in her bedroom, on her bed.
He laughed. “She is pissed!”
“I wouldn’t laugh, some of that anger seemed directed at you.”
“Nah. Just caught in the crossfire.”
Rain walked back into the living room. She crossed her arms over her chest, turning first to Thomas.
“I had to keep Sammy at the hotel my entire shift.”
“I’m sorry about that,” he said.
“Where’s Thomas?” she asked Thomas.
I looked at him, confused. “I thought you were Thomas.”
My sister pointed at him. “No, this is Ethan.”
“You told me you were Thomas.”
He shook his head. “I think if someone rewound the conversation, it was you who told me I was Thomas.”
“So who are you?” I said.
He held out his hand. “Ethan Nash. And you’re Rain’s sister. YouTube sensation.” He paused. “Kind of.”
I stared at his hand, not taking it. “You could have corrected me.”
“I could have.” He smiled. “Just one question. Why Macon, Georgia? It’s not a particularly lush farming community. Why not go to Texas? That still has a Southern feel.”
“We clearly needed your help.”
“Clearly.”
My sister rolled her eyes. “Look, where is Thomas?” she said, completely uninterested in this. “He was supposed to grab Sammy at the hotel and take her home. She’s going to be exhausted!”
Ethan turned toward Rain. “There was a small car accident.”
The anger washed off her face and in its place was terror. “What?”
“He’s fine. He’s totally fine.”
She pushed Ethan. “For fuck’s sake, Ethan! Would you open with that next time?” she said.
“He was on his bike heading to East Hampton to get Sammy.”
I looked at them, confused. “He was going to put Sammy on the bike?”
Rain put her hand up to stop me. “Really? Can you refrain from offering your opinions on my parenting skills?”
Ethan shrugged. “Anyway, some teenagers were going too fast on Ocean and they threw him off. He may have a couple of cracked ribs. And his knee is toast.”
“Where is he?”
“Southampton Hospital. In surgery.”
“What? How is that completely fine?”
“Thomas didn’t want me to tell you tonight. He wanted me to just get some of his things.”
She started running around frantically. “I don’t fucking believe him. That fucking bike.”
“I can’t imagine why he didn’t want me to tell you,” Ethan said.
She headed toward the bedroom. “I’m going to wake up Sammy. And we’ll head to the hospital . . .”
“I can watch her,” I said.
She stopped and turned around. “You’ll say anything to stay here,” she said.
“Yes, that’s true. But I’m still happy to do it.”
She looked back and forth between us, as if Ethan was going to weigh in.
“But she doesn’t know you.”
“It’s a good thing she’s sleeping, then,” I said.
Rain looked down at her watch, out of any good options. “If she wakes up, which is never going to happen, but if she wakes up, I want you to call me. No, I want you to have her call me.”
Ethan stepped past us into the bedroom, started filling his garbage bag with Thomas’s things.
“She usually gets up around seven, seven thirty, if you’re lucky. Our friend Gena is watching her tomorrow. She will be here at six thirty A.M., will you not burn the house down until then?”